Sunday, March 10, 2013

Snowpocalypse goes on

Although it is almost mid March, we don't feel much Spring yet. Instead we are experiencing very harsh weather (but not that cold, I have to admit). It keeps snowing daily in large amounts with strong winds added.

Speaking of snow, it has become thicker and snowflakes are bigger. This is thanks to warmer temperatures that glue the crystals together.

The snow accumulates on the roads and in the streets. There are some attempts to clean it but snow wins. Even Putin's visit did not help: usually all streets are washed with soap. This time the entire city was one big traffic jam. There is a LOT of snow. If you dare to park your car for longer than a couple of days, you risk to end up like this:

For pedestrians it is not better either. Snow-covered streets are hardly passable. Last week we had first positive temperature and a rain so all streets turned into a giant iceskating rink. People get these devices on their boots:

Strong wind with the snow makes it all worse. Even where roads were cleaned, the snow tongues eat up the road making driving very dangerous. On intercity roads there are many accidents. Today people report that hundreds of cars were trapped for many hours. Even now, at 2am the reports say more than 60 cars with 130 people remain blocked by snow. Drivers share their videos from today trips (this is not some off-road track, this is the only intercity road that connects many cities and towns):

One more video from yesterday, the guy is driving from west to Novosibirsk.

Wind is so strong, even planes flying above Siberia suffer. Flightradar24 shows today that westbound planes fly at just 700 km/h while eastbound speed up to more than 1000 km/h.